Stopping The Hurt Of Vaccinations

[Retired]

Vaccination is the most common procedure performed in infancy, although parents might have significant concerns regarding the pain associated with routine vaccinations. Moreover, painful experiences very early in life can promote somatization later in life. Oral sucrose has been demonstrated to reduce pain reactions among neonates, and the current study examines this simple intervention prior to administration of routine vaccination at 2 and 4 months of age.

Reference:
Hatfield LA, Gusic ME, Dyer A, Polomano RC
Analgesic Properties of Oral Sucrose During Routine Immunizations at 2 and 4 Months of Age
Pediatrics. 2008;121:e327-e334
Source: Medscape Review

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I wish my pediatrician would have known about this!

 

[Workahol]

Sort of on topic I guess,
I just read a book recently by Dan Ariely, called "Predictably Irrational", would really recommend the book to anyone who enjoys both economics and psychology.

But he goes to say that in situations of pain, its better to receive it slowly than receive it quickly - His example was when you take off a band-aid, that its better to pull it off slowly and make the pain last over more time, than it is to just tear it off quickly.

Dan was burned very badly in his younger years, and was put into the burn unit of a hospital in Israel. Every day he would be re-bandaged with fresh bandages, and the nurses would pull the bandages off very quickly, which hurt him. He later studied it, and realized that the nurses hadn't considered pulling the bandages off slowly, and their reasoning behind pulling them off fast wasn't to get the pain over with for the patient, but so that they themselves(the nurses) didn't have to deal with the psychological ramifications for causing a patient pain over a longer period of time. So, next time you pull a band-aid off your child, and you do it fast, do you pull it off that way for you? Or for the child...